UW Does Some Serious Bronco Busting in Final LA Bowl

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Denzel Boston discovered what it was like to be an LA Bowl football fan at SoFi Stadium.

Midway through the second quarter, the University of Washington wide receiver found himself standing all alone on the 30-yard line, like it was some deserted L.A. street corner, where he waited and waited for a Demond Williams Jr. pass to arrive.

Once he gathered it in, Boston, with no one within 20 yards of him, turned and headed for the end zone undeterred to complete a 78-yard touchdown pass for the go-ahead points in a 38-10 victory over Boise State on Saturday night -- in the bowl game that practically no one saw in person.

Denzel Boston gets a celebratory lift from tackle Drew Azzopardi after his 78-yard touchdown catch. | Dave Sizer phot

In what might have been the poorest turnout for any of the 44 UW postseason games, with large gaps of empty seats between cluster of fans, and no one seated in the upper three levels, the Huskies (9-4 overall, 5-4 Big Ten) entertained themselves, especially in envisioning what could come next.

"I think this group has a lot of promise to win a lot of games," UW coach Jedd Fisch said. "We've talked about it as a team, what it looks like and what it can look like."

The announced attendance was 23,269, but it was hard to believe there were even 15,000 in the stands as sparse at was at SoFi.

No wonder this holiday classic reportedly will disappear after five games into college bowl extinction.

The Huskies sent it out by scoring on four of their first six possessions, with Williams lobbing touchdown passes of 6 and 3 yards to freshmen receivers Dezmen Roebuck and Raiden Vines-Bright, besides his long heave to Boston, in the process.

Williams threw four scoring passes in all, finding tight end Quentin Moore in the second half, and completed 15 of 24 passes for 214 yards.

"For our team, I thought we had a great mindset this whole year, just bouncing back from adversity," Williams said. "That's someething I learned from throughout the year and I thought the whole team did."

With five interceptions, the UW defense proved dominant at times, if not totally unforgiving.

Linebacker Xe'ree Alexander, nickelback Rahshawn Clark, edge rusher Deshawn Lynch and cornerback Leroy Bryant with a pair came up with the picks. Alexander similarly collected a pass deflection, a sack and a fourth-down tackle to force Boise State to turn the ball over.

"It was amazing," Alexander said. "Our defense dominated and did our job."

Xe'ree Alexander and Demond Williams Jr. show off their MVP awards at the LA Bowl. | Dave Sizer photo

Alexander and Williams were named the LA Bowl's defensive and offensive players of the game.

The Huskies just did what they were expected to do against the Broncos (9-5 overall, 6-2 Mountain West), which is use their speed and savvy to demoralize them.

"I thought our guys, offense, defense, special teams, really everybody clicked," Fisch said. "It was a true complimentary game. I told the guys in the locker rarely do you get five touchdowns and five interceptions in the same game. That was pretty cool to see."

Boise State scored first, with the aptly named Colton Boomer sending a 52-yard field goal through the uprights just three minutes and 25 seconds into the game.

On their first drive, the Huskies reciprocated with a 33-yarder by Grady Gross to tie the game with 4:20 left in the opening quarter, unable to get more from a 15-yard drive that took even minutes and 15 seconds of the clock.

That's about the only place these teams matched up closely -- with dueling kickers.

Demond Williams Jr. scrambles, avoiding a loose Boise State shoe. | Dave Sizer photo

With 9:54 left in the first half, Williams stepped out of a tackle and pitched one to Boston, who raced past two Boise State defensive backs who were running the other way at the beginning of his route.

The scoring catch was the 11th this season, and 12th touchdown overall, for the 6-foot-4, 210-pound junior who hasn't officially declared for the NFL draft but would surprise everyone if he didn't. He had 6 catches for 125 yards against the Broncos.

After a defensive stop, the Huskies returned to the end zone again, with Roebuck hauling in his seventh TD catch of the season with 1:56 left in the half.

Roebuck came up with the points on this drive only because Williams, five plays earlier, overshot a wide-open Decker DeGraaf, with the sophomore tight end watching the pass sail over his head at the 10-yard-line and no one near him.

Denzel Boston gets tackled by Boise State safety Zion Washington. | Dave Sizer phot

There was still time in the half for one more Husky touchdown.

After a Clark interception and 4-yard return to the Boise State 35, the UW needed just three plays to make the Broncos pay for this gaffe.

Williams lobbed one to Vines-Bright running to the left corner of the end zone and pulling the ball in for his first career UW touchdown and a 24-3 lead with 1:17 remaining to the break.

Playing no favorites at all, the Husky quarterback delivered a scoring throw to each of his starting wide receivers and there was still a half to go.

Xe'ree Alexander (10) had an interception, pass deflection, sack and fourth-down tackle against the Broncos. | Dave Sizer photo

To open the third quarter, Williams made sure to include Moore in all of the end zone excitement, putting a 32-yard TD pass in his hands, beating a Boise State linebacker, with not even three minutes played in the half for a 31-3 advantage.

It was the second and final TD catch of Moore's UW career, with both coming in postseason outings.

In the fourth quarter, those who were still in attendance saw Husky oddities on consecutive plays.

Jonah Coleman fumbled.

Repeat, Coleman coughed up the ball for the first time in his college career by turning the ball over at the UW 30.

A play later, the Huskies' Lynch stepped in front of a screen pass and lumbered 57 yards to the Boise State 10, doing everything he possibly could to score before he lost his balance and fell down untouched. Later, he share that he was gassed.

"Is that what the Lyncher said, is he ran out of gas?" Fisch said laughing. "I shouldn't have stopped running the team on Tuesday after practice."

Coleman converted that turnover into a 6-yard TD run to close out his college career, with his15th of the season rushing and 17th overall, and a 38-3 lead with 10:46 to go.

After those 38 unanswered UW points, Boise State mercifully was permitted to put a touchdown on the board with 1:15 left when Matt Lauter caught an 8-yard throw.

This game had everything -- except fans. If they had showed up in any significant numbers, the Boise State followers would have been heading to the exits well before the end.

While UW players no doubt welcome a bowl game whenever it comes, they've had to wonder through the years why they play in front of crowds of 68,000-plus at Husky Stadium on the average and they don't even see half that for the some of these postseason encounters.

The Freedom, Aloha, Las Vegas and Sun have been among those that had a lot of good seats still available on those game days.

A UW cheerleader is upside down as the Huskies run onto the field. | Dave Sizer photo

In all, the Huskies have played in front of 13 crowds in the postseason that didn't top 36,000, with the lowest on record supposedly the miniscule 20,229 in the seats filled at the Cotton Bowl for the UW's 44-31 victory over Southern Miss in the 2015 Heart of Dallas Bowl.

This one had to be worse than that, maybe not for tickets sold, but for who showed up in person.

That's another reason for the Huskies to aim for a College Football Playoff berth next season, where the games tend to have lots of people in the seats.

"We'll just figure out exactly what we need to do," Fisch said. "We're working very hard at that, to make sure we keep staff together, the team together."

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